ISTANBUL — Turkish police detained the crypto founder Richard Heart and his wife on Wednesday morning at a property in the Beşiktaş district, according to Turkish media reports that no Turkish or Finnish official had confirmed on the record in any coverage TEH reviewed. The reported basis is a notice from Interpol requested by Finland.
Heart, whose legal name is Richard James Schueler, founded HEX, PulseChain and PulseX. Every account TEH found traces back to one Turkish report, from the Ihlas news agency (IHA), which Daily Sabah carried. That is a single source repeated across outlets, not independent confirmation. Cointelegraph said a spokesperson for Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation declined to comment, and it carried no response from Heart or his representatives.
What Finland says it suspects is narrower than some headlines suggest. In 2024, the broadcaster Yle reported that Finnish police suspected Heart of gross tax evasion between June 2020 and April 2024, with arrears of “several hundred million euros,” plus an assault in February 2021. A remand order in absentia followed on September 13, 2024. Those are suspicions. He has not been convicted of anything, and a remand order is not a finding of guilt.
The reported seizures are where the accounts diverge. CoinDesk reported, citing Turkish media, that authorities took $4 million in cash, 64 luxury watches, firearms and electronic equipment, adding that police have yet to confirm those figures. Cointelegraph, citing IHA, listed devices, hardware wallets, jewelry and handguns, with no cash total. Neither list was backed by an official inventory in the coverage TEH read.
An Interpol Red Notice asks police worldwide to locate and provisionally detain a person. It is not an international arrest warrant, and Turkey decides under its own law what happens next. Whether Finland has filed a formal extradition request is not stated in any report TEH could read.
The case is separate from the one in the United States. The Securities and Exchange Commission sued him in July 2023, alleging in the Eastern District of New York that offerings for HEX, PulseChain and PulseX raised more than $1 billion without registration and that he and PulseChain misused at least $12 million, according to the SEC’s own announcement. Judge Carol Bagley Amon dismissed the complaint in February 2025 for lack of jurisdiction, finding his activities were not clearly aimed at American investors, and the SEC said in April it would not amend it. His lawyer, David Kirk, called the outcome “a complete victory.” The ruling concerned jurisdiction, not whether the allegations were true, and it did not touch the Finnish suspicions.
Traders did not wait for confirmation. HEX fell nearly 30 percent in 24 hours, Cointelegraph said, shrinking its market value from more than $500 million to about $340 million by CoinMarketCap’s count.
Nothing on the record answers the simplest question: is Richard Heart still in Turkish custody?
